A rumor has been going around for about four months now that Valve is coming out with a Linux version of Steam and had a lot of people in the Linux community very excited. However Valve have officially killed the rumor. And it is not what people wants to hear - there is no Linux version of Steam in development.

The occasional game from a private company that has been vocally bitter about DirectX dominating is proof of what exactly?

Everyone knows it is possible to port to Linux. That doesn't change the fact that Linux is simply not designed around proprietary software. It isn't a single platform that developers can target. It's a bunch of semi-compatible systems that come with a litany of issues for closed source developers that do not exist on Windows or OS X. The best way to avoid these issues is to release the source which is not an option for proprietary companies.

The occasional game from a private company that has been vocally bitter about DirectX dominating is proof of what exactly?

Everyone knows it is possible to port to Linux. That doesn't change the fact that Linux is simply not designed around proprietary software. It isn't a single platform that developers can target. It's a bunch of semi-compatible systems that come with a litany of issues for closed source developers that do not exist on Windows or OS X. The best way to avoid these issues is to release the source which is not an option for proprietary companies.

Still, fact is, id was able to do it... were they not? Give them a few years, you never know... id Software and 3D Realms are actually pretty good companies and may just release the source for Doom 3. Wolfenstein 3D, Duke Nukem 3D, Shadow Warrior, Doom, etc.... they've done it before, I won't be surprised if they do it again. Sure, 3D Realms had nothing to do with Doom 3 (and two of those are 3DR games), but they have a long history with id Software, both companies are similar, and both are somewhat supportive of open source software. But obviously, only when their chance to make money out of it is over.

I'm not too into PC gaming any more (never really was, at least not heavily--always been a console gamer) but those two companies are among my most respected and favorite overall. Since ditching Windows, I respect them even more for their support of open source software.